


More or Less Stressed

by moniinbear



Category: One Piece
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Comedy romance, Fluff and Smut, Idiots trying to figure out what love is, M/M, NSFW, Roommates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-28
Updated: 2020-02-09
Packaged: 2021-02-24 23:36:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 17,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22006321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moniinbear/pseuds/moniinbear
Summary: It’s just after Law graduated medical school. He’s managed to secure a residency position and find an apartment downtown, problem is he’s drowning in debt from college and medical school. To lessen financial burden, a friend of his recommended getting a roommate. Maybe he shouldn’t have gone potluck…
Relationships: Monkey D. Luffy/Trafalgar D. Water Law
Comments: 33
Kudos: 205





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fanfic, and first one I've uploaded to AO3... so theres still some things for me to learn trying to work it out! I've tried my best to make this series a build-up, so if you're looking for straight up smut.. give it a minute or two.

More than anything, Law hates living with people. He hates not having his own space, hates cleaning up after idiots, and he hates the unnecessary noise. It’s hard to find an upside to living with another person. Hell, he could hardly stand living with Penguin and Shachi for a year. But money is getting tighter than it already has been, and living isn’t getting any cheaper. His landlord managed to go out of her way to help get a roommate for him after he couldn’t win a negotiation for lowering her prices. He has no say in who his roommate will be, and either way he’ll probably be limited to using hot water for the washing machine to be able to buy food. But there isn’t a single other apartment thats in literal walking distance to his workplace AND a grocery store than this one, the place isn’t worth giving up just to avoid having a roommate.

“His name is Luffy, he’s a bit younger than you and just as poor, but he’s a good guy! You’ll like him, maybe. Well, you both have a 1-year lease so it really doesn’t matter if you like each other or not!”

“Not really reassuring” Law mumbled. He’s walking back from a trip to the store, a bag of eggs in one hand and a phone in the other up to his ear.

“I got off the phone with him before I got on with you, he should already be at the apartment unpacking. Thats really all I have to say, I’ll let you figure the rest out.” Law heads up the multiple flights of stairs, stopping in front of his apartment door flung wide open. “Oh, and one more thing! If he breaks anything, you’re both paying!”

“Wait what—“ before he could finish, she hung up. Out of all the landlords he’s been though, Nami had to be the worst. Sure, she keeps the apartment in the best shape he’s ever seen a landlord keep, but she won’t miss a single opportunity to jack up the price on him. Stepping inside and shutting the door behind him, he beholds the mess thats become his living room. Empty cardboard boxes all over the floor, personal belongings dropped here and there, empty pizza boxes and soda cans covering the couch and table. Must have had some help moving in, he nudges away the garbage on the floor making a path to the kitchen. Opening the refrigerator door, his once mostly empty fridge now totally filled with pizza boxes. “What the hell…” where the fuck am I supposed to put these..? How many did he order?? I thought he was broke. He reorganizes the condiments in the door’s shelf in an uncomfortable crowd, managing to fit the two egg cartons in there. Closing the fridge, he turns back to the mess of a living room. Every fiber of his being wanted to take it all and throw it in the trash bin, new roommate’s personal belongings and all. Unfortunately, trash pickup was yesterday. A door opens and the sound of steps move from the hallway to the living room.

A guy about half a foot shorter than him in a straw hat looks around the room, apparently spotting nothing wrong with all the garbage, before noticing Law, “Oh! Are you my new roommate? Or a neighbor?”. He’s got short messy jet-black hair underneath his hat and tan skin, wearing a red worn-out T-shirt and faded shorts, unusual for the cold weather outside. He honestly looks like he just walked out of working on a Caribbean fishing boat.

“Yeah, I’m the roommate.”

He looked Law up and down, “Hahahaha! Nami told me to look for a guy who looks like he’s about to drop dead! So I was expecting an old dude or something!” Wow. What a bitch. The overly enthusiastic boy throws out his hand for a shake, a big smile on his face, “I’m Luffy! Nice to meet you— uhhhh… Traffy!!”. Law reluctantly takes his hand, Luffy has a surprisingly strong grip. His hand is pretty calloused too, it’d be more surprising if he didn’t come off of a fishing boat. 

“It’s Law. Trafalgar is my last name.”

“Really? Thats weird!”

That’s not something you should say to someone. “… Would you mind cleaning up your mess?”

“Yeah, no problem!” He lets go of Law’s hand and gets to clearing off the coffee table. Law walks away to his room, shutting the door firmly. Pulling up he desk chair he seats himself in and sets his phone and keys on the desk. He’s not interested in why Luffy is here, what he’s doing with his life, or any of that. Roommates don’t have to be friends, they just have to be able to live peacefully. That means, staying out of each other’s business. Seen but not heard. If possible, he’d like to be able to pass by him in the hallway without one of them saying a word and not making things awkward or tense. THAT is a dream roommate.

The door flies open and Luffy pokes his head in, “Hey Traffy I forgot to ask! What are you doing here?”

In my room? Minding my own fucking business? “Seriously?! I should be the one asking that!!” If Luffy’s tone weren’t so cheerful, you’d think he was picking a fight.

“Me? I’m just lookin for a job that’s all. Not sure where yet,” he invites himself in and takes a seat on the floor, making himself comfortable. “I was hoping for a restaurant or fast food, but I got fired from the last restaurant cause apparently leftovers aren’t free. So I’ll probably take up boxing again if they’ve got that in town!” There’s too much to unpack for all of this, and Law can’t figure out if he cares enough to ask for clarification. “Nami told me you’re a doctor! Thats awesome!! So you’re really smart huh, why’re broke though? Did you do something bad?”

“What? No, I just started my residency— never mind, full stop.” Law raises his voice, he hasn’t felt this agitated in awhile. He’s used to getting yelled at by stressed family members or being lunged at by delirious patients, he can keep his composure. But all of this at once was too much at a time, it hasn’t even been 20 minutes and it’s already looking like it’ll be a shitty relationship with his new roommate. “If we’re going to be living together, we need to establish some rules.”

“Sure!—“

“First off: Don’t enter my room without knocking— actually, don’t enter my room at all. If you need something, knock and tell me through the door.”

“What if you’re not there—“

“Then text me. Next rules: keep the apartment clean, meaning the bathroom, kitchen, hallway, and living room. Vacuuming, moping, and wiping down surfaces with disinfectant should be done AT LEAST once a week. I don’t mind switching every other week. Trash and recycling get taken out every week before Friday, when it gets picked up. No house parties, no borrowing my things, no loud music, and no texting/calling me for random shit.” That’s all Law can think of for now. Luffy listened quietly, the smile off of his face. Was I too stern? No. We’re adults, so he needs to act like one.

“Got it! Here’s my rule,” Luffy stood up from the floor and walked closer to Law. He put both hands on the chair’s arm rests and leaned closer to him. Law’s heart either skipped a beat or dropped to his stomach, why the hell is this guy getting so close to his face? But it gave him a chance to get a good look at his face. His eyes were so big and round, and a dark brown color. He looked younger than he actually was, rather innocent looking. Law hates his space invaded, Luffy this close was uncomfortable but not intimidating. Theres something about him that doesn’t let Law pull away, something about how honest and natural Luffy comes off to him thats gently tugging at Law’s attention.

“Don’t eat my food!”

Law blinked. Did he have to get so close to his face to say that? “That should be a given”, he rolls his chair away from him, Luffy chuckles,

“Just making sure though! Alright, see ya later!”

Luffy stepped away and let himself out of the room, leaving his door wide open. Law took a second before getting up and closing it.

Even with him gone, Law’s chest still felt uncomfortable.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who just found out how to work the text formatting? Hahah not this bitch. Good luck figuring out what lines are Law's thoughts and what lines are just text.

Luffy somehow managed to break every single rule Law made. Just one thing after another, what was once his sanctuary from a long day at work has become a hell for him. Luffy threw a party the very night that he moved in, leaving beer cans and more pizza boxes everywhere. He can no longer just burst into Law’s room since Law now locks the door—

“— he uses my soap and hair wash, and I’m pretty sure my toothbrush! He hasn’t cleaned up once since he’s been here, all he does is stack the fucking pizza boxes against the wall!” Law paces back and fourth in his room, struggling to keep from yelling into the phone at Penguin, “He never takes his keys with him, so when he couldn’t get back in the house after I left for work, he broke in!! Through the window!!”

“Oh shit, you gotta pay for that?”

“YEAH. I DO. The neighbors thought he was robbing me and called the cops!! I ran out of my lunch break for that bullshit” There’s a stifled chuckle on the other end, “… Are you fucking laughing at this?”

“I’m sorry I’m sorry! Law, c’mon, it’s not like you’re the best roommate either.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? I clean up after myself and I’m not loud, I don’t get the cops called on me either.”

“Yeah, but… well…” Well, what? “You’re not the warmest person to settle in with, let’s just say that.”

“I…” It’s hard to admit, but he’s right.

“Just give it some more time, get to know him a little more. You’ve got a few days off don’t you? Just talk to him! Maybe he found a job and will be out of your hair soon…. just try not to kill him first, kay?”

“Whatever”

“Alright, I gotta go. Talk to me later, tell me how it ends up!” Law hangs up, but the pacing doesn’t stop. He takes a deep breath, running his hands through his hair. Making friends is the last thing he wants to do, it should be clear enough from a week of being cold that he’s not interested. But it hasn’t stopped Luffy’s friendly advances, if anything its been an encouragement. Moving out before the lease ends isn’t an option, but neither is avoiding Luffy. Law considered switching to night shift, but Luffy’s sleep schedule is so sporadic it doesn’t matter what time he’s off at work.

The front door is heard, loudly opened and slammed shut. Running footsteps are heard through the living room to in front of Law’s room. There’s a sudden heavy bang against the door, then a jingling of the doorknob. Did he throw himself at the door expecting it to be open? Is he fucking dense?

“Traffy~! Let me in!”

Maybe if I pretend I’m not here—

“Since it’s locked I know you’re in there!” Okay, so not dense. Just stubborn and inconsiderate. Law unlocks the door, standing firmly at the doorway to stop him from running in and getting comfortable.

“It’s locked for a reason. What do you want?” Luffy holds something right up to his face. Law has to grab his hand and push away to see just what it is, it’s a video game case.

“Check it out! Usopp lent me a this game since he already beat it!! It’s single player, but you wanna play with me?”

“No”

“C’mon you’ve been so busy we haven’t had a chance to hang out!” Luffy grabs Law’s arm and pulls him out of the doorway. For someone of his build he’s got some serious strength. “It’s right at home! You don’t have to go out anywhere, you just have to sit with me! Usopp said I should choose something at home since I told him you seem tired all the time! So thats what we’re doing”. Great to know Luffys been talking about Law behind his back, as if he isn’t doing the same thing though. It’s hard to object now, since he’s been dragged out to the living room. But its different… the once stacked up pizza boxes are gone, and the crumpled up soda cans that littered the floor have disappeared as well. It’s like he actually bothered to clean up after himself for once. Not like he deserves praise for it, it should have been kept clean in the first place.

“Zoro made me clean up after he tripped over a garbage bag”

Okay maybe he is an idiot, otherwise he would’ve kept his mouth shut. Law takes a seat on the couch while Luffy gets the TV set up and inserts the disc into the console. The console gets warmed up and Luffy takes a controller then plops onto the couch sitting right next to him, his leg slightly on top of Law’s. Law tenses up,

“Do you have to sit so close?” Luffy ignores him, sitting excitedly waiting for the game to download. Law doesn’t bother moving his leg, its uncomfortable but Luffy’s skin is unusually warm. As if he’s been sitting out in the sun for a long time, despite it being 34F outside and the apartment heater off. The game comes on and Luffy quickly starts a new save file. Its an adventure game, open-world with dungeons and villages. It’s not a bad looking game actually, it could keep someone occupied for quite awhile— that is if anyone but Luffy were playing. He walks right past any NPC trying to have dialogue with him, regardless if they’re part of the main story line or not. He keeps getting stuck on the puzzles, and doesn’t bother picking up loot unless it’s a dead enemy’s armor or weapon.

“You’re blowing through the whole story! Plus you’re not going to get past the gate by hitting it, you have to solve the puzzle first!!”

“Every time I try to it just shoots knives at me!!”

“Thats because you’re doing it wrong! Hand me the controller.”

“What?? No!! Usopp lent me this game to play so I’m the one playing it!!”

“I thought you wanted me to play with you, just hand over the controller.” Luffy pouted at Law, his cheeks puffed out and his brows furrowed. “Look, I’ll just help you get past this part then I’ll hand it back, alright?”. Luffy paused to think, then handed the controller over to him. Law gets through the puzzle instantly, but continues through the dungeon. Luffy says nothing, just watches. Law continues through the dungeon, being efficient with his progress and saving at opportune times. They sit with each other, a few comments and praise from Luffy here and there. It wasn’t like Law was great at video games, he just knows how to play a video game properly.

“Stop using the bow! I want the sword to get strong!!”

“You need to have at least one long-ranged weapon, and your magic level sucks”

“Boo~”

Enough time has passed where Law doesn’t even realize Luffy was sitting leaning against him until the straw on Luffy’s hat caught a thread on his shirt. He was slouched against him, head resting on Law’s shoulder, Another personality clash between the two, Law is not a fan of touch. Usually. He tries to readjust his arm and get Luffy off him, but he doesn’t budge.

“What are you doing?”

“Well I THOUGHT I was gonna play a video game. Gimmie!” reaching over, snatching the controller out of Law’s hands. Even with the controller back Luffy doesn’t move off of him. His body is warm, relaxed and unwilling to move. With enough effort he can tell Luffy off or just shove him away, but its… not the most unpleasant feeling. Law stopped being able to pay attention to the game, caught reflecting on how long it’s been since someone was with him like this. He can shame himself on being touch-starved later, but for now being a more ‘approachable’ person looks like the best way to get a house clean. And it’s clear now that Luffy is definitely using his shampoo.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is the start of NSFW stuff. As you should be able to see, I'm much better at writing SFW stuff.

Law has learned a great deal about Luffy since he’s moved in. For one, he can’t cook. Anything. Microwave popcorn comes out burnt beyond recognition, so he has officially been banned from the kitchen. Another is that while he hardly cleans up after himself, he barely owns anything. Clothes, games, and the bare essentials. He comes and goes out of the house as he pleases, though he’s usually gone. It’s like having a stray cat that eats everything in the fridge, no matter who’s name is on the box. Law doesn’t bother to ask, but he is a little curious when he comes back looking beat up as if he just got jumped. More importantly, he’s a touchy guy. And not always in a gentle way. Sometimes he runs into the kitchen, crashing into Law usually making him spill whatever he’s holding. No amount of scolding has gotten him to stop, he just goes, “Oops! Sorry!!” flashes a bright, warm smile, then runs off again.

Ever since the move in, Law hasn’t been able to do his… business. What little sleep he’s able to get is aided with melatonin supplements, cough syrup, and masturbation. He’s always had the freedom to do it in his room, but the shower has always been the most comfortable place to jerk off in. It’s warm, calming, and easy clean up.

Luffy has been gone most of the weekend, and its late into Sunday. The best time to rub one out for a decent night’s rest before the work week. Law doesn’t like to rush himself but its better to get a quick one out than to be barged in on. Betting that Luffy won’t be home for another hour or so, Law starts his shower.

Stripping off all his clothes and setting them in his laundry basket, he steps in and closes the cheap flimsy curtain. Letting the water run over him he starts with washing his hair quickly, then the rest of his body. Now that he’s clean, time to get dirty.

He starts with stroking the shaft of his dick slowly, letting out a sigh and feeling himself relax. His hands slick from the water, he slides his hand back and forth making a twisting motion with his wrist at the head of his dick. It doesn’t take long for his to get rock hard, being how pent up he’s been. He quickens his strokes, working at the base, slowing down only to give the head some attention. Getting lost in the feeling, his dick tensing up and getting hotter, the door slams open.

“Heyyyyy Traffy! I gotta use the bathroom!”

Oh are you FUCKING KIDDING ME “Would it kill you to knock?!”

“I did! I think…”

“GET OUT”

“Okay okay geez, hurry up you’re so slow!” Luffy walks out of the bathroom, closing (but not shutting the door behind him). Law rubs his face with his hands. The stress suddenly back all at once, and the hard on all but gone. It’s not like he can’t masturbate in his room, its just not as preferred. Since waiting it out isn’t an option, its best to just take care of it there. Where the locks on a door work. Law turns off the water and gets out of the shower, reluctantly. Drying himself off with a towel, he regrets that the pants he grabbed are sweatpants. And just his luck, in the excitement of getting to jack off for the first time in a long time he forgot to bring a clean shirt with him. Whatever, just need to get out quickly. He slides on his sweatpants and hangs up his towel, his hair barely dry still dripping with water. He opens the door and finds Luffy leaning against the wall, his hands in his pockets.

“You done—“

“Yeah. I’m done.” Law storms past him, heading for his room, his hand on the doorknob before Luffy grabs his other hand. Between the stress dealing with the trauma of life, and the horniness making a tent out of his pants, rage was about to out-compete both feelings.

“Those are your tattoos? I thought I saw a bit before on your chest but these are badass!” Law felt something touch his back, along the lines of his tattoo. He turned around quickly, yanking his hand out of Luffy’s grip. Luffy’s cheeks a little flushed, with a cheerful but sleepy look on his face. Most likely he’s been drinking. Law took a deep breath, feeling a headache coming on. How many months are left on the lease before he can move out? Too many, thats for sure.

“Do you hate me or something?” Law genuinely wanted to know. Did he hate him? Or is he just this much of an inconsiderate, careless prick, to even value his time and living space? Luffy’s eyes widened, the smile slowly coming his face. He looked at Law’s face, not saying anything for a good moment.

“I’m not good at anything but fighting,”

Oh, is that a fucking threat?

“I can’t cook, I’m bad at cleaning, I’m loud, I eat too much… but this whole time you’ve been really nice to me!” Law thinks back to all the times he’s purposefully locked him out of the house. “Sorry that I barged into the bathroom like that!” He was taken aback, not expecting a genuine apology. Law felt a badump in his chest, the high blood pressure and heart rate definitely getting to him. It was entirely possible Luffy knocked and Law didn’t hear him.

“Yeah” was all Law could muster. There were a million other things to complain about, barging into the bathroom is just the tip of the iceberg. Living with someone who doesn’t care about cleaning a house or locking a door leaves room for more than improvement. It leaves room for a whole lifestyle renovation. But there’s only so much that you can change about another person. Which is why living with people sucks.

“Yayyyy we’re BEST friends!” Luffy wraps his arms around Law and hugs him, his face pressed against Law’s chest.

“NO we aren’t, get off of me!!”

“Noooo let me look at your tattoos~” Law tries pushing him off, Luffy runs his hand from Law’s waist to his back. Law freezes in place.

“What do all these hearts mean? Were you in love with someone or somethin?”

Being touched was one thing, but skin to skin is starting to make his stomach feel weird. The last thing Law needs is to feel more feelings. Luffy giggled to himself, slurring his words a bit, “Did you know? When I was a little kid, Shanks told me that tattoos cut people’s fingers off if you touch them because they’re made from needles and they’re really sharp,” his warm fingers felt along the small of Law’s back, lightly brushing his skin. Luffy looks up at him smiling with soft sleepy eyes “that can’t be true when your skin is so smooth”.

Now Law’s face is flushed. What a stupid thing to tell a kid, what a stupid thing to say to a grown ass adult.

“Dude, you’re hard”

Yup. Time to go.

“OFF. NOW.” Luffy lets go, Law scurrying back into his room shuts and locks the door behind him. Being away from him didn’t stop his heart from feeling like its about to burst out of his chest. He switches off the lights and sits on the edge of his bed. His rapid heart beat isn’t the only thing that won’t be going away any time soon.

… No, probably just best to go to bed. One incident is enough for a day.

He thinks to himself. It takes laying in bed another 2 hours awake for him to finally slip into sleep.


	4. Chapter 4

Another typical morning with less sleep than Law had hoped for. Rolling out of bed, he slides on his slippers and makes his way to the kitchen. But something is different… there are no pizza boxes stacked by the trashcan, in fact the trashcan has been emptied and the bag replaced with a new one. The floor is free of food crumbs and soda stains, he could actually afford to go barefoot without stepping in anything disgusting.

“Law! You’re awake!” Luffy cheerfully greets him. He’s standing by the stove, cooking a pan of eggs and bacon. The smell making his mouth water, how long has it been since someone actually cooked for him? At least a few months. Whenever he’d visit Penguin and Shachi they’d always cook something for him. Law looks around the kitchen, all the dishes had been put away and the counter tops cleaned off. It looks just like it used to look before Luffy moved in. “I made you some breakfast!”

“Wow… really? Thanks” Law walked towards a cabinet and opened a door for a plate. The inside of the cabinet completely empty. “…. where are the dishes?”

“I threw them away, they took up too much room.” Law looks back in the cabinet to see it filled with empty pizza boxes. “I woke up pretty early to make this for you, so I’ll be eating first… ” Luffy approaches Law from behind, feeling and squeezing Law’s waist with his hands.

“L-Luffy!—“

“You look tasty, I just want to take a bite out of you~” he goes ahead, gently biting on Law’s shoulder. The feeling sends a tingling sensation throughout his whole body. Luffy reaches his hand into Law’s pants, feeling his hard dick with his warm hand. The feeling of being touched is bizarrely overwhelming, almost bringing him to his knees. Law has to put his hands on the countertop just to stay up. “You couldn’t do what you wanted to yesterday,” Luffy whispers into his ear, breath hot and tickling his neck, “why not finish where you left off?”. Luffy barely pumps his hand, the sensation is overwhelming. Law shudders, a warm feeling feeling filling his pants as the world dissolves around him…

The world had literally dissolved around him, leaving him staring dazed at the ceiling in his bed. The alarm clock gently beeping, silenced by a swift and practiced swipe of the hand. Just a dream. But a pretty fucked up one at that. Lifting his blanket, begging that the warm feeling he had in his dream wasn’t real— except that it was. At least it wasn’t piss.

A wet dream?? About HIM??? He groaned loudly, rolling out of bed. Sure, men have weird horny dreams for just about anything. Anything a person can think of, a man has had a sexual dream/thought about it. So there’s nothing to think more about, right? He takes off his pants, and wipes himself off with a clean washcloth.

“Just a dream. Just a dream. Just a dream”. He slides on a clean pair of underwear, and light-blue colored scrubs. Loud yelling suddenly comes from the kitchen, and clattering of boxes falling over are heard. Unlocking the door, he walks quickly to the kitchen, the smell of burning food filling the air.

Over the stove-top, a tall flame licking the ceiling emanates from a single pan, lighting up the entire room. Luffy holds up a spatula to the flame, like a brave knight facing a fierce dragon.

“I CAN’T MAKE IT STOP! I’M SORRY!!” Law runs in, shoving Luffy aside making him ram into the refrigerator. He opens the cabinet, pulling out a pot cover. Slowly sliding it over the pan, the fire quietly disappears. Law finishes by turning off the knob on the stove. The kitchen is quiet for a long minute, the only sound heard being Luffy’s hard breathing.

“Dude… holy shit… I thought water was supposed to put fires out! Ahah… Ahahaha….” Law lets out a sigh. He’s not angry or stressed surprisingly, maybe due to the adrenaline rush. Or the euphoria of sleep deprivation. Either way, it was almost kind of fun putting out a fire again. It had been so long since he had last put out a kitchen fire from Corazon’s horrible cooking. There was some nostalgia mixed with the smell of burnt bacon.

“S-sorry Traffy!! I’m super sorry I was trying to cook us some food, but all of a sudden it caught on fire!!!”

“Whatever. Its fine— wait” He opened a cabinet. All the plates and bowls were in there. Yeah we’re good. “I’m not hungry”.

“But that was AWESOME!!! You put it out so quick!! How’d you know to do that?!”

“Experience”.

“You were a fire fighter?”

“No, what? No, I just know how to put out a grease fire. Just like any adult should know how to do.”

“Ohhh you suck at cooking so you get fires a lot!” Luffy starts laughing, like its such a wild concept that another person besides him could start a kitchen fire.

“What the hell are you— I cook all the time! I’ve never started a grease fire, I just know someone that did!”. Luffy’s laughing subsided, he takes a seat on the countertop, letting his legs dangle under him.

“You know someone that does?… Do you have to cook a lot for them?”

“Yeah. I did all of the cooking actually.” He looks up at the ceiling, there was just a tinge of brown burning on the ceiling. But it could easily be painted over.

“Oh… ‘did’…” Luffy swung his feet under him, “Hey, do you have a girlfriend?”. Thats certainly a new question. “… Or a boyfriend?”

“No?” It’s a pretty strange question for him to ask all of sudden.

“Ah, thats a relief! I thought so! I don’t see you bring anyone home with you after all!”

“I know it doesn’t look like it, but I’ve got a social life too”. Why am I even trying to defend myself to this guy? Luffy chuckles, sort of sheepishly. His cheeks a little pink. He rubs the back of his neck with one of his hands, looking around the ground before meeting Law’s eyes.

“Well if ya want, we could go out— T-TO EAT! Somewhere, you know?” Law sighed. It wasn’t uncommon for people to mistake him for a cold, lonely bastard devoid of any social connections. That was most of college, was his RA’s trying to get closer to him and get him to hang out with people he had zero interest in. Last thing he needs is for his overly rambunctious roommate to take pity on him too.

“No thanks. I’m busy”.

“I mean when you’re not busy!”

“I’m always busy”

“No you’re not! Come on~ don’t be like that!” Luffy slid off the counter and got close to Law. He stepped back, against the counter. Memory of the dream from this morning flashed in his mind, his heart pounds harder in his chest. “I know! You’re free on the weekends, right? I’ve got a party this weekend with all my friends, its Zoro’s birthday! Come with me, won’t you?”. Law does not want to go. Really really does not want to go. But there’s something about Luffy’s big, pleading eyes that tugs at him. Like if he said no, that he’d be absolutely devastated.

“… I’ll have one drink, then I’m out”. Luffy smiled, then patted Law’s shoulder roughly,

“Alright nice!! We’re gonna have so much fun I can’t wait!!!”. Luffy walked out of the kitchen with a skip in his step, not bothering to clean up the mess he made. He stopped in the middle of the hallway, not even out of sight giggling to himself and giving a little fist pump.


	5. Chapter 5

Zoro’s apartment was only a 10 min bus ride from Luffy and Law’s apartment. The time they spent on transit there was the most Law has actually sat with Luffy and listened to him talk. Months living together, but this is the most they’ve really interacted with one another, aside from the one time they played a video game together. Luffy didn’t talk much about himself, rather he went on and on about the friends Law was going to meet.

“— and Sanji owns his own restaurant somewhere uptown. It’s really fancy, so he doesn’t let me in. But he cooks for me whenever he’s got a day off, and his food is AMAZING! Its the best food you’ll ever eat! And Usopp—“

Law sits quietly with him and listens. Its clear that Luffy has known these people for a long time and they really care about one another,

“So why is it that you don’t live with them?”

“Oh… ah, well some stuff happened thats all. We all still spend tons of time with each other, so it’s not so bad that we don’t live with each other anymore!” So they did all live with each other at one point. Luffy laughs a bit and rubbing the center of his chest. He gets quiet for a moment and looks out the window as if in thought. “We needed the time time apart to grow up I guess”. The way he said it was unlike him. It’s as if he’s looking back on it nostalgically, like its a bitter-sweet memory.

There were small flurries falling from the white sky, supposedly the area will be getting more snow later into the evening. Driving will be dangerous by the time Law leaves, but walking through it won’t be bad. Law is wearing black water-proof snow boots and dark blue jeans, he has on a snug black long sleeve shirt and overtop a yellow winter coat with an intricate black design. Luffy has on black athletic pants with white stripes on the side, red sneakers, and a white & red hoodie, plus the usual worn out straw hat.

“We’re here! This is our stop!” Luffy hopped off the bus seat with energy, running up to the front. Law waits for the bus to actually stop before getting up.

___

The music could be heard before even reaching the front of the apartment complex.

“One drink. And then I’m out.” Law reminds Luffy, but he ignores him and opens the door without knocking.

“Hey everyone!!!” Luffy yells loudly over the music. Everyone inside turns their heads, yelling a greeting in response and raising a cup.

“Luffy! You made it!!” A man with black curly hair, and a remarkably long nose greets Luffy at the door.

“Usopp!!” They high five one another, all smiles and laughs. Usopp then looks at Law, his smile gone in an instant.

“Ah… y-you must be Traffy?”

“It’s Law.” He coldly corrects. Usopp takes a step back, then pulls Luffy to the side whispering loudly.

“This guy?”

“Yeah!” Luffy responds cheerfully. Usopp glances over his shoulder back at Law with a deep concerning look on his face.

“He looks like one of those black market doctors, why HIM?” Law rolls his eyes, it’s not unusual for people to talk shit about him. It’s happened throughout his entire life, people take things at face value, they think he’s cold and stern so thats just how he’s going to continue to be. He’s learned to ignore it. Law looks around the apartment, its not as dirty as he thought it would be for a friend of Luffy’s. Its mostly bare, with a few apartment essentials. A TV, a couch, a table, a raccoon—

“FUCK” Law nearly jumps out of his skin. The raccoon jumps back a little too, surprised by the reaction. It runs behind the couch.

“Oh hey! Chopper is here too!!” Luffy walks over and picks the raccoon up, the raccoon holds onto Luffy with it’s little hands and chirps happily. “Robin you had Chopper for this week?” A tall woman walks out of the kitchen, holding a glass of wine.

“Yes, my week just ended so I brought him here for Zoro. It’s convenient that his week started on his birthday.” She pets Chopper’s head and takes a sip of her wine. She looks over to Law and smiles, “You must be Law. Don’t worry, Chopper is tame. He was raised by humans his whole life. It’s nice to meet you, Luffy has told us so much about you. My name is Robin.” She extended her hand for a handshake. She has a dignified way of carrying herself, she seems normal. He shakes her hand. “Can I get you something to drink?” She gestures for him to follow her, bringing him to the kitchen.

“I’ll just have a beer. Then I’m on my way out.”

“Oh, is that so?” She grabs another large glass for him and pours red wine into it.

“No thats okay, just beer—“

“I really do wish you’d stay with us a little longer” she speaks with a calm, pleasant tone and a soft smile on her face. She continues pouring the wine until its filled to the rim. “Why don’t you stay and tell us about yourself?” she says, handing him the full glass of wine. It had to have been at least half the bottle. He took the glass, hesitantly, wondering if he could find a house plant to dump this in.

“… thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” He took a big sip of the wine. Its good wine, he’ll give it that. But he needs to get out of here as quickly as possible, even if he’s going to be stumbling over his own feet doing so. Someone else enters the apartment with two big beer cases under his arms. He’s got bright green hair and a large scar on one of his eyes, as soon as he walks in Luffy snaps a party hat on him that has BIRTHDAY BOY on it, so he must be Zoro. Everyone greets him, taking Robin’s attention off of Law. He seizes the opportunity and sneaks away from her.

___

Only an hour or two into the party he’s gotten through more than half of his glass now, and everyone is settled into their niche. Usopp and Luffy hang onto each other and sing loudly along with the music, Nami (who Law was very shocked to see and tried to avoid meeting with for 20 minutes) and Robin chat on the couch with one another, Zoro and Franky were drinking heavily tease Sanji in the kitchen. Law stuck to the wall right outside of the kitchen, ready to set down his glass whenever he was finished to make a straight line for the door.

“Traffy! Finish off your bottle for us, would you?” Nami walked by and poured the rest of the wine into his glass, restoring it back to half-full. “Its expensive wine, so if you waste any of it I’m charging you double.”

“It’s $40 at best”

“What was that?”

“Nothing” he takes a big drink, getting it back to the level in the glass he was at before. It had been awhile since he drank, Law’s not a light-weight but by no means is he a heavy drinker. He wasn’t sure if he’d be able to walk inconspicuously by the time he would get outside, in fact his vision was getting pretty blurry so reading the street signs wasn’t going to be easy either. He looks across the room at Luffy who’s settled down and sitting with Usopp. Luffy notices Law, they lock eyes. Luffy’s face is flushed red, probably from drinking. He smiles and waves, suddenly Usopp grabs his face and makes him look back at him. Then he seems to be caught in some kind of lecture, Law can’t tell what’s being said because of the loud music.

“Sooooo,” Nami leaned against the wall next to him, “how do you like living with Luffy?”

“He’s the worst roommate I’ve ever had” he blurted. Probably not the smartest thing to say in a room full of his best friends, get it together. “But he’s not a bad person.” he adds. Nami sighs, swirling her drink.

“Yeah, he’s like that. He’s loud and messy, and he’s pretty impulsive… but he really likes you, you know that right?”

“Because I keep a clean apartment so he doesn’t have to clean up his own messes.” At this point he doesn’t care how he looks trying to finish his drink as quickly as possible, he does NOT want to spend another moment with his landlord. Jesus, who makes wine glasses these big?

“Well, not just that but…” She pats him on the back, “Anyways, hang in there champ! And don’t forget to pay your rent!” She leans in real close, “Its coming up in 3 days” she whispers.

“I’m aware of that” he finally finishes his glass of wine. “Alrighty then, time to get the fuck out of here” he mumbles to himself. He sets his empty glass down on the kitchen table, when he heads for the door he’s stopped by another house guest. Chopper sits in the middle of the living room floor, staring right at Law. Chopper sniffs the ground, and steps a little closer to Law.

“Hey I think he likes you!” Sanji calls out from behind Law. “If you kneel on the ground and pat your lap, he’ll come to you.”

“Sure, why the fuck not. Yeah let me just cuddle this raccoon real quick.” Law slurs, but he’s not sure if he’s being sarcastic or serious anymore. Sure enough he gets on his knees and pats his lap. Chopper comes up close to Law, right in front of him. He puts his paws on Law’s lap and sniffs his nose. Chopper has a relatively light color, almost a brown and white instead of a black and grey color, his eyes are round and a deep brown. He looks well-taken care of, and has a very gentle approach towards Law. He looks deep into his eyes for a moment, then licks Law’s nose gently. Law scoops the raccoon up in his arms, burying his face in Choppers neck.

“Oh my god you’re so soft… you’re so cute…” he mumbles into the raccoon. Chopper chirps back at him, patting his hair with his paws.

“Awwwww so cute!!” Franky says jokingly. Chopper snuggles with Law but for only a moment, before jumping out of his arms and running through the doggy door, normally he’d be hurt by the rejection but it reminded Law of his original objective.

“Alright I’m leaving. I had my drink.” Law gets up from off the floor, a hand on the couch to steady himself.

“If you chase after him he won’t like you” Zoro says.

“I’m not chasing after your raccoon, I’m leaving. See ya.”

“Wait! I’ll go with you!” Luffy gets up from a chair and hurries to Law’s side, “Do you need help walking?”

“I know how to walk. Stay with your friends.”

“Luffy~ walk with him!” Nami waves, “He’s very drunk, I’m very~ worried about him!” she gives Luffy a wink.

“Yeah, and he’ll just come back right after he takes you home! It’s not a big deal!” Usopp walks the two of them to the door, giving them a shove out. “Okay~! Bye bye!” Usopp flashes a big smile and a thumbs up, before shutting the door behind them. Then there’s a click of a lock.

I guess they get sick of him too.

Luffy wraps one of his arm’s under Law’s shoulder around his back.

“Yosh! Lets get you home!”

“I can walk.” Law says, but most of his weight shifts onto Luffy anyways. They walk together down the stairs and onto the streets. “Luffy I can walk, it was just one bottle of wine”

“Uh, yeah. Thats kinda a lot.” he laughs, “Not as much as Zoro but still a lot!”

“You’ve been drinking too, haven’t you?”

“Not really, I only had a beer”

They walk with each other through the snowy sidewalk, it was already late into the night. Time had passed by quickly while at the party. They walked silently for a few minutes,

“You’ve got a lot of different friends.” Law says, breaking the silence.

“You think so?”

“Yeah… you’re all so different from one another.” There were hefty age gaps between some of them, and completely different career paths for all of them. Listening to their conversations, he could gage that some of them were from all over the country, even some outside of it.

“Really? I don’t think we’re that different. I mean, you and I are so different yet we met!” He’s right. Under different circumstances, he and Luffy would have never met. It’s like Luffy was born under a special star that led him to the different circumstances to meet so many different people. Or just dumb luck. Law’s stomach started feeling queasy, he definitely drank too much too fast.

“Hey, go through the park over there. It’s a short cut.”

“It is?”

“Yep. And I need to sit down too.” Luffy walks Law into the park, finding a bench and dropping Law onto it.

“Ow”

“Hahaha oops!” Law rubs the elbow he fell onto and sighs.

“You know, I’d have never met someone like you if I weren’t dirt poor.”

“Everyone kept asking me about that! If you’re a doctor, why don’t you have any money?” Law sighed and rubbed his eyes. It’s not like its a long story, but it’ll raise a lot of questions. He’s got no interest in Luffy probing into his life, he doesn’t need anyone trying to pity him. But as to why he’s poor… it should be fine right?

“… It was about 2 years ago. I was still in med school, on one of my clinical rotations at the hospital’s ER. It was late at night, but thats when my rotation had just started. The most I could do at the time is what a surgical nurse is allowed to do, under supervision of course— Anyways, some guy came in, holding a friend or something. Just busted through the doors, covered in blood asking for a doctor. This guy wasn’t in good shape himself, but the person he was holding… we were all pretty sure he was dead.” Luffy listened quietly, but a little distracted from all the snow. He’s crouched on the ground rolling up a snowball in his hands.

“He wasn’t dead yet. I had only been in the ER for a short time, but his chest was the worst I’ve ever seen. I looked like he was struck by lightning, and all the electricity was concentrated into one spot. He became our top priority, if we didn’t act now he was going to die. We tried identifying him, but nothing came up. I’ll be honest, the hospital I did clinical at was sketchy as hell, but they were ready to halt all procedures on him because he didn’t look like he was going to make it… and… It was such horse shit, he and the other man were our only patients at the time. I mean, besides the one kid that chopped off a finger—“ he waved his hand in dismissal, “But thats not the point…” Law leaned his head back, watching the snow fall from the sky.

“I get it, it looked like he was going to die. But there was just something about him that I… needed to save. Maybe its because he reminded me of what I had to go through… or when he clinged to arm as we were wheeling him down, all he kept saying was ‘Ace, Ace, Ace’. But he was still alive, and these bullshit doctors were ready to let him go just because he didn’t have any insurance. So… I paid in full price for his operations. Nearly 10 operations in just 3 weeks, and I paid for them with the money I didn’t have. I’m in a fuck-ton of debt for one guy I didn’t even know. He made it through the operations, but hell he’s probably not even alive anymore—“

“Law.”

He looked up. Luffy was standing up, the half-formed snowball fallen from his hand on the ground. His face was serious, a look of almost bewilderment in his eyes, like he was holding his breath. “What hospital?”

“What?”

“What hospital was this at?” He said louder and more clearly. Law’s never seen him this serious before, he almost wondered if he said something wrong. It wasn’t as if he just violated HIPPA, he hadn’t used anyone’s name other than the deceased brother’s… well shit maybe that is a HIPPA violation.

“… if I tell you, you’re not going to tell anyone else are you?”

Luffy stared at him.

“Don’t bother looking it up or anything, it was shut down when I finished clinicals. They had a lot of other sketchy stuff go on,” Law got up from the bench, feeling much more sober since leaving the party. The rest and story-telling had him feeling refreshed enough to make it back to their apartment on his own feet,

“Marineford. The hospital was Marineford.”


	6. Chapter 6

Law brushes off the snow that had landed on his coat and puts his hands in his pockets. His mind has become much more clear, he’s lucky that the park actually is a shortcut back to the apartment. It’s not like him to get stupid with alcohol like some people do, but still. Its nice to be oriented. He points down the trail over the bridge on his left.

“If we cut through the trail past the bridge near the big oak tree, we’ll be behind the apartment in less than 5 minutes. You can see it from here actually.” Suddenly, Luffy has his arms wrapped around Law holding him tightly. “Like I said earlier, I can walk. I’m fine now—“

“It was you!! I was right I knew it, it WAS YOU!!” Luffy squeezed tighter as he was filled with more excitement.

“What are you talking about?! Let go of me!”

“They wouldn’t tell me! All the nurses and doctors wouldn’t tell me who it was, they said he wanted to stay anonymous— but I just had a feeling it was YOU!! Traffy!” he looked up at Law, his eyes bright and wide, “You saved my life!!”

… what?

There’s no way. Someone in that condition would have to be bedridden for life. In a chronic state of hypoxic drive. On dialysis. Looking like death everyday… not, like a pocket of sunshine. Law wiggles out of his embrace, walking quickly over the bridge to the trail.

“Thats not funny.”

“Huh?” Luffy follows close behind.

“They should be dead by now. I don’t know what you went through but it wasn’t me that saved you.”

“But I’m not dead! I made a full recovery!! They said it was a miracle but— LOOK” Luffy stopped in place, pulling off his hoodie letting it fall to the ground, then taking off his shirt.

“Its below freezing what… are you…” Law’s voice trailed off. On Luffy’s chest was a giant X-shaped scar. Its a big enough scar you can tell that doesn’t come from normal accidents. Not from bar fights, not from car accidents, something much worse.

“… well?”

Well, what? Its not like he can recognize his own surgeries, he’s done so many at this point that names and faces have all blended together. There’s no point in remembering every single patient he’s worked on. But looking at this scar itches at him. He can’t even remember the name of who it was, you’d think something this serious would stick with him but…

“Traffy I’m freezing my ass off here!”

“I didn’t make you take off your clothes!!” Law turns away, walking more briskly on the trail. They eventually reach the apartment, he turns at the doorknob. Of course it was left unlocked. Luffy hadn’t said much else for the rest of the short walk. When they enter the apartment, Luffy grabs Law’s arm stopping him from retreating to his room.

“Ace was my older brother. He died two years ago, we were both caught up in a bad accident. I tried getting him out of it, but I couldn’t save him. The person that carried me in was Jinbe. I don’t remember a lot of that night after Ace died, there were a lot of people that helped me get through that day… Traffy, I can’t get back the people that I lost. But I need to be able to thank the people that helped me live.”

It was Luffy. Theres no one else it could be, why is it so hard for Law to accept that? He doesn’t resent Luffy for being a bad roommate, he doesn’t resent him for costing him thousands of dollars, in fact he doesn’t resent Luffy at all. Why is it that after all the world has done to him he still chose to be a doctor, why did he save the life of a person he didn’t even know at his own expense? Its simple. He wants something back from the world, but is too afraid to ask for it. Keep giving to the world and eventually it’ll give back, right? Or rather, it just continues to take. Theres a small frail hope that one day, he’ll get something back from the world worth keeping.

“I did it on a whim. Don’t think anything of it”. Law pulled his arm away.

But that already happened. And the world took it right back.

___

Law woke to his alarm clock. 5am. He had forgotten to turn it off, since it’s the weekend he doesn’t have anywhere else he needs to be. It’s nice that his position gives him weekends off, but he could really use the money. He starts to remember all the events of last night. Just what the hell is he supposed to do or feel about any of it? The patient that costed him every penny he had (and didn’t have) has been living with him, even before then he really didn’t know what to think of him. He didn’t hate being around him, he didn’t hate being touched by him like he does with most other people. God, what a mess. He needs to get out of his own head… is this worth talking to Shachi or Penguin about? He doesn’t have anyone else he could go to. What would he even say? Does he want advice? Who else could have been in a situation like this that has experience?

He rolls out of bed, taking off his shirt throwing it on a chair. He’s just confused because I paid for his surgery, he doesn’t actually like me. I’m just… me. I don’t actually like him. I’m just tired and overworked. People don’t like him. He’s tolerated. Just stick with your life, let others stick to theirs. He takes a look at himself in the mirror, at the inked heart covering his chest. What did Corazon ever get from me, other than a body full of lead?

His door swings open, Luffy letting himself in with a big smile on his face as usual.

“Traffy!! Good mor–“ he comes in for a hug, but Law holds up his hand shoving Luffy’s face away.

“Knock. We’ve talked about this.” Luffy moves Law’s hand to where it’s cupping Luffy’s cheek.

“Hehehe, good morning!” Law yanks his hand away, just what is he doing?!

“What do you want? For fucks sake its not even 6 yet.”

“I just wanted to see you, why?”

“… at 5 am…”

“Yeah! You’re already awake, so what’s the problem?”

“Thats not the issue…” Luffy steps closer to him, Law looks away. His face was soft and warm, part of him wanted to hold it on his cold hand a little longer. It still feels weird to him, his first meeting with Luffy it was like meeting a corpse. Now he’s like life itself— wait no, no that sounds… that sounds so cheesy to even THINK. He doesn’t have a crush on him, its just how Luffy is. “Get out so I can actually get dressed.”

“Hm?” he says, like there’s no issue with not giving someone a little privacy. Law grabs him by the shoulders, walking him out and closing the door. Locking it.

___

Law spends an extra 2 hours in his room after getting dressed and ready for the day on his phone texting Penguin and Shachi about what happened. Both of them came to the same conclusion: “Dude, he LIKES you! And you LIKE him!”

Law: “No, we’re two completely different kinds of people. He doesn’t have anything to like about me.”

Shachi: “Well, you do look like a SoundCloud rapping gigolo.”

[Law has removed Shachi from the group]

[Penguin has added Shachi to the group, say hello!]

Penguin: “But there are good things about you. You really need to stop being so hard on yourself. You’re not unloveable.”

Penguin: “You think other people put up with you… I mean they do, but the right kind of people like you. It doesn’t hurt to give something like this a chance. How often do you run into someone who likes you back?”

Shachi: “How often do YOU run into someone that likes you?”

[Law has removed Shachi from the group]

Penguin: “He’s got a point and you know it.”

Law: “Yeah… I know…”

[Law has added Shachi to the group, say hello!]

Penguin: “Anyways, just try it out! See how far it goes!! Don’t think too hard about it either. By the time you ‘completely work out your feelings’, the chance is going to be gone. Don’t waste time second-guessing yourself!”

Shachi: “And don’t listen to what people on the internet say about dating roommates. And remember, lube up before—“

Dating, all of the things that come with it, he’s never done it before. Most of the people he’s come across label him off as antisocial upon first meeting, or learn quickly that they don’t like him. Law’s phone buzzes again, a private message from Penguin.

Penguin: “For starters, stop pulling back when he touches you. If you get comfortable enough, touch back.”

Yeah right, like he’s going to actually try and get together with Luffy. Law tosses his phone on the bed. Law unlocks the door, he leaves the room and goes into the living room where Luffy is on the couch playing the same game they played together once. He sits on the other end of the couch from Luffy, Luffy notices and scoots to the middle of the couch. Closing the distance between them, defeating Law’s purpose of sitting where he chose. His arms remain crossed., looking like he needs to be somewhere, or like he’s expecting something out of someone. Either way its rather intimidating, not that Luffy notices.

“I was waiting for you! Wanna play?”

“No thanks.”

“Ah, okay.” He gets back to the game for a bit. It looks like Luffy has been playing on a regular basis. His level has risen considerably and he’s using different weapons. His playing style is still the same, ignoring dialogue and getting lost in maps, but he’s still made progress. He’s done well in the dungeon, he clears away the undead and reaches the boss. Once he’s in the boss room, the boss attacks him upon entry. But Luffy doesn’t fight back, his character is killed quickly and he’s shown the CONTINUE screen. But he doesn’t press any of the buttons, he just sits there.

“Traffy… about how much the surgeries costed you…” He looks Law in the eyes, his voice sincere, “I’ll find a way to pay for it. I found a job recently, actually! I start soon, it pays pretty well! I mean, depending on the haul—“

“Don’t.”

“… huh?”

“I wanted to be anonymous so this wouldn’t happen. Don’t feel like you have to do this. I chose to pay for it. I’ll suffer the consequences.” Luffy looked down, thinking for a moment.

“No, I’m gonna help you pay for it.”

“Its fine. Like I said—“

“Shut up already, I’ve got a plan!” Being offered to help pay the debt off is great, its fantastic. So why is this turning into a fight?

“I don’t need you being involved with me. I chose to pay for it, I’ll take care of it myself I don’t need your help. I make enough, it’s going to be paid off in 12 years—“

“I’m helping you so shut up. How much? How much was it?”

“Way out of your pay range, jackass!” Law raised his voice. 

“Not if I haul enough crabs it won’t be!!!” Luffy shouted. There was silence between them.

“… excuse me?” Luffy drops the controller on the floor, turning to face Law.

“I got a job fishing for crabs on a boat, off the coast. If I catch enough crabs, I can pay off the debt! I can do it with crabs!!” A strange light feeling rose from Law’s stomach, he covered his mouth with his hand,

“pfft…ahAHHAHAHAHAHA” he couldn’t hold back his laughter. Crabs? Seriously?? I knew he looks like he came off a boat but—

“I’m serious, crabs make a lot of money!! Not just crabs, it’ll be other fish during the summer— would you stop laughing?!” He couldn’t, it’d been so long since he actually laughed. Luffy grabs a fistful of the front of Law’s shirt and pulls him towards him.

He roughly presses his mouth against Law’s, the laughing stops instantly. He stays only for a moment, then pulls away. Law’s eyes wide, unable to process what had just happened. They looked into each other’s eyes, the only sound in the room from the CONTINUE screen on the video game. Luffy is leaned over Law, who’s laid back against the arm of the couch, the grip on his shirt not loosening. Luffy’s cheeks a slight pink, the look in his eyes determined staring into Law’s.

“Crabs make a lot of money.”

YOU DON’T KISS SOMEONE THEN START TALKING ABOUT CRABS

Law grabs Luffy’s cheeks before he can say more and pulls his face closer, closing his eyes and pressing his lips against Luffy’s. His lips warm and soft, his mouth tasting suspiciously like Law’s toothpaste. He presses a little deeper, tongue gently brushing against Luffy’s. The grip on Law’s shirt loosens, he can feel the heat of his face rise against his hands. Law pulls his mouth away, Luffy had been leaning into the kiss not letting him pull away easily. He opened his eyes, getting a look at Luffy’s dazed expression.

“Traffy…” he says breathily. Law feels his chest tighten, a warm electric feeling surges through his abdomen. In this moment, he couldn’t care less how far this goes.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is where the NSFW is hunnies.

Luffy brings his mouth back to Law’s, hungrily feeling in his mouth with his tongue, like this kiss was something he’d been holding back from for too long. Law moves his hands from Luffy’s face to his back underneath Luffy’s shirt. His skin is smooth and warm, his waist thin but well toned with muscle. Law wondered if it was too soon to get him to take Luffy’s shirt off. As he thinks this, Luffy takes ahold of Law’s shirt and yanks it open, breaking off the buttons from the seams.

“LUFFY.”

“Oops! Thought they were those snapping buttons!”

“They weren’t! Why would you think that?! They’re clearly— mmph” Luffy interrupts Law once more with a kiss, his tongue pushing deeper into Law’s mouth. I’m not going to just sit back and let him have his way. Law uses his hands to push himself up, he forces himself over Luffy, pressing Luffy’s back onto the couch. He looks down at Luffy, whos smiling back up at him. Panting, cheeks flushed and lips red from the kissing. Seeing Luffy so relaxed underneath him brings up something primal in Law, like he just wants to turn him into a complete mess. He wants him to hurt, just a little bit, enough to make him lose composure, to have him disheveled under him and knowing he did it. He runs his hands along Luffy’s waist, moving his right hand up to Luffy’s chest brushing his finger on one of his nipples. Luffy inhales sharply, Law rolls the nipple in small circles with his thumb. He lifts up Luffy’s shirt, moving his mouth to Luffy’s other nipple. He stays there, biting and sucking, playing with his other hand, Luffy grunts. Law’s lower stomach, pressed against Luffy, feels a bulge pressing against him. His own dick has gotten hot and erect in his pants.

Law kisses up to his neck, then bites down hard, intending to leave a mark. Payback for the days left pent up.

“Ahh~!” A small gasp escapes Luffy’s mouth. “Traffy…” Law felt his chest tighten hearing his name— well, his nickname. Luffy suddenly sits up, slamming their foreheads together.

“Gah!! Fuck!!”

“Which do you think is more comfortable? Your bed or mine?” Luffy asks, un-phased by the head-butt. Are we really doing this? We’re moving to the bedroom? We should just stop here… Law rubbed his forehead.

“… mine, most likely.”

“I thought so! You’re a pillow princess!”

“WHAT—“

“Ah, I guess it would be ‘prince’ rather. I mean I only got like one pillow on my bed, you got like a bunch!” Luffy sits up off the couch and slides one arm under Law’s leg, and another one behind his back. Lifting him up bridal style.

“Thats not what ‘pillow princess’ means!!” Luffy ignores him, carrying him down the hall with ease to Law’s room. “Let go of me, this was a mistake STOP—“ Luffy kicks open the door and carries him to his bed, plopping him down roughly. Law scoots up in his bed to sit up, his back rests against the wall where the head of the bed is pushed against. Luffy gets on the bed, knelt between Law’s open legs.

“Traffy” he comes in again for a kiss. And just like that, Luffy’s back in control. They sit for a moment, exploring each other’s mouths with their tongues. He moves his hand to Law’s pants, unbuttoning and unzipping them. He strokes his hand over Law’s underwear, feeling the shape of his cock and how it twitches slightly under the warm contact. Law pulls his mouth away, a thin thread of saliva still connecting their mouths.

“Luffy..” he says, in way that was far more needy than intended. Luffy stares at Traffy, a purposeful look in his eyes that makes him feel strangely vulnerable. But not uncomfortable. He doesn’t have the time to ask why Luffy is doing this, but he can tell that he wants to do this from the way he’s been kissed and stroked at, like he’s frustrated from holding back for so long. Luffy pulls his hand away from Law’s pants, he licks the palm of his hand letting as much saliva as he can from his mouth onto his hand, not breaking eye contact with Law.

Fuck, thats hot.

He sticks his hand back in Law’s pants, under his underwear this time. Luffy grasps his cock, slowly stroking it up and down. He uses his other hand to pull down Law’s underwear with two of his fingers, exposing Law. Luffy’s warm hand and the feeling of his saliva running along his cock making it slicker intoxicates Law. He keeps one hand grasped on his bedsheets, and with the other grabs Luffy by the top edge of his athletic shorts and pulls him closer. His hips seemingly move on their own against Luffy’s crotch. He lets go of the top of Luffy’s shorts, moving his hand into his underwear. He strokes Luffy’s hot dick, it’s uncircumcised and of decent length, if he’d have to guess around 8 inches. His shaft gets slightly thicker closer to the head.

“Traffy… more…” Luffy begs, just feeling around and massaging isn’t enough. But spit isn’t enough lubrication either. Law lets go of the bedsheet and opens a drawer from the nightstand, pulling out a bottle of lube— which he bought online after the shower incident. It’d be more pleasant if it were warmed up already, but who the hell could have foreseen this happening? He opens the bottle and squeezes a generous amount in his hand, and some on his own dick, not really caring at the moment that some got on his clothes. He drops the bottle back on the nightstand, which rolls off and falls onto the floor.

Luffy’s strokes quicken. Law struggles holding back his moans, trying to concentrate on working at Luffy’s dick. Luffy presses his mouth back onto Law’s, licking and lightly biting at his bottom lip. Law’s mouth, already slightly numb, missing the warmth obliges to Luffy and kisses him back passionately.

“Traffy… Traffy…” he continues moaning in-between kisses. Law pumps at Luffy’s hard dick, but feels himself slipping deeper and deeper in his own pleasure.

“Ahh hahh Luffy— ahh!” His hips jerk, cum leaks from his dick as Luffy continues to pump. Law’s head falls back onto his pillow, shuddering and riding out his orgasm not realizing he let go of Luffy. Law lays under him trying to catch his breath, Luffy jerks himself off over Law. He grunts cumming on Law, warm semen splattering on Law’s stomach. He leans on top of Law, resting his head on his shoulder and takes a big sigh. They sit together, taking in the smell of a mutual orgasm perforating the room. Post-nut clarity comes to Law eventually, he covers his eyes with his clean hand.

“Fuuuucckkkkkk…” This is not what he meant to do. And to be left with processing it all at 8:30am nonetheless. What the fuck just happened? How did any of this just… happen? Steps were definitely missed, there’s definitely steps before shit like this is supposed to happen.

“Traffy” Luffy says, face still buried in Law’s shoulder. Law keeps his hand over his eyes, dreading the conversation that has to follow this.

“… what?”

He didn’t respond, but Law felt him smile into his shirt. Luffy chuckled and wrapped his arms around Law’s back, pulling him closer. He could feel Luffy’s rapid heartbeat beat against his chest.

“You’re a pretty funny guy, you know that?” Law opens his mouth, but closes it again. At a complete loss for what to say. The guy who’s made a complete mess of his life thinks he’s the funny one… guess SOMEONE is supposed to find the humor in all of this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Pillow Princess-- A girl in a lesbian relationship who likes the receiving but doesn't like to do the giving. This is the same as a pillow queen aka the bottom in the relationship." (Urban Dictionary)
> 
> Luffy heard Vivi use the term for her girlfriend Nami, and thought it meant someone that sleeps with a lot of pillows.


	8. Chapter 8

Shachi slurps loudly through his straw at his already empty drink, the only liquid sucked up being from ice melted at the very bottom of the cup. Neither Law nor Penguin said anything, there was LOTS to say, but Shachi was already rearing to say SOMETHING and is choosing to start with dramatic slurping. It was after a 12 hr shift from work, Law sat with Penguin and Shachi in their apartment in their living room table. They had the option to talk about what had happened over their lunch break in the hospital, but maybe wasn’t the best conversation for others to overhear. Law tapped his fingers on the table, his cheek resting in his other hand.

“Would you just—“

Penguin raised a finger, gesturing for Law to wait a little while longer. He slurped at his drink another moment, before letting the straw fall out of his mouth. He straightened up in his chair, looking right at Law.

“……… So when Penguin said ‘see how far it goes’… what did you think he meant?” Law rubbed his face, groaning into his hands.

“I just can’t believe you did all of that SOBER. You’re really shaping up bud, I’m proud of you!! And I thought lesbians moved fast—” Penguin smacked the back of Shachi’s head hard enough to knock his hat onto the ground.

“So… what’s happened since? What did you two talk about afterwards, are you both hooking up officially now?” Law sighed, slouching into his chair.

“No, we aren’t we haven’t talked.”

“Like… at all?”

“…” Law averted his eyes to the ground, taking a sip of his cold coffee. Penguin and Shachi gave each other a concerned glance.

“Law it’s been 3 days since that happened, you’ll have to talk with him at SOME point! You can’t go around avoiding him anymore like you used to.” Exactly. Everything was so much simpler when Law could just avoid him. Act like there’s nothing between the two of them. Law feels sniffing by his knee and looks down. Bepo, Shachi and Penguin’s pet Samoan looks up at Law with a big smile on his face. Law pats Bepo’s head. As much as Law wants to act like what happened wasn’t a big deal, he just can’t bring himself to. He can’t bring himself to get closer to Luffy, but he can’t pull himself away either. Whatever he’s stuck in has him losing even more sleep than usual, eating has almost stopped entirely. Whenever Law’s been left alone with his thoughts, he’s started to get nervous. Hands start shaking, breathing becomes hard, and a sharp pain pierces his chest that doesn’t seem to leave him alone. Its not the same pain squeezing his chest when he’s with Luffy, it’s something else. Something he’s too familiar with, it’s the same feeling he kept getting when Corazon was killed. There’s no dragging sluggishness of wanting to die every single day like there was back then (although shoving his face in Bepo’s plush white body to suffocate himself would be a great way to go), but the chest pain is the same.

“… Law, how much sleep have you gotten in the past few days?”

“God, I don’t know. A few hours. 2 maybe.”

“Law!!—“ Penguin and Shachi exclaim in unison.

“It’s not like I’m TRYING to stay awake, I just don’t… feel like sleeping. I’ll figure it out. Or pass out at some point. Hell if it’s at the hospital maybe I’ll get a free IV.” Law sips the last of his cup of coffee, setting his mug down on the table. “Who am I kidding, they’d charge double for that shit. Anyways… thanks for listening. I’ll be fine. I’m headed back, I’ve got work tomorrow.” He hurries out of their apartment, closing the door just as Penguin was about to say something to him.

___

Law makes it back to the apartment late at night. He pulls out his keys, but the door doesn’t unlock for him. Looking down, he realizes he’s been trying to open the apartment with his key card from work. Stuffing his keys back in his pocket, he turns the knob. Of course it’s unlocked, it’s always fucking unlocked. He walks in, Luffy was sitting on the couch staring at the TV guide aimlessly flipping through channels. Noticing Law, he jumps off the couch.

“Traffy! You’re back! Where’d… you…?” Law walks past, trying to get to his room. Luffy grabs his arm, “Hey I’m trying to talk to you! Why the hell are you ignoring me?”

“I’m not in the mood, let go of my arm.” Luffy’s grip tightens.

“Then when ARE you going to be in the mood? You’re never in a mood to talk. I’m not even trying to talk about kissing each other or any of that, I’m just trying to TALK.”

“For once, maybe learn how to shut up.” Law snaps, yanking his arm out of Luffy’s grip. He turns to face Luffy, if they need to talk. Fine. This is how they’re going to talk. It might as well have ended up like this, it was going to happen at some point anyways.

“What the hell is your problem?! I thought we were getting along!!”

“You’re the one that kissed me!” Law blurted out, seemingly out of nowhere. It’s undeniable now that the whole thing has been eating at him ever since it happened. The time between waiting long enough to process what had happened has long passed, he’s already gotten to the point of overthinking what it all meant, so much that it’s jumbled in his head. Trying to understand why someone like Luffy would be interested in him just feels like his dunking his head in a thick fog.

“You kissed back!!” Luffy yelled. Law paced back and fourth, running his hair through his hands and trying to calm down.

“Yeah, well, I shouldn’t have. It was a mistake.”

“Well I didn’t kiss you by mistake, I like you—“

“Oh, you LIKE me? Why? Because I saved your life? News flash, idiot. I’M A DOCTOR, I get paid to do it. Your life isn’t the only life I’ve saved. And frankly? With the situation I’m in, I’m really starting to regret that I did!”

Silence fills the apartment. Luffy stared at Law, a hard and angry expression on his face, saying nothing, waiting for Law to retract what he said or at least follow up. He waits, but Law doesn’t say a word. Luffy looks down at the ground, thinking for a moment. He turns and storms to the door, stepping into his worn down pair of tennis shoes and grabs his coat off the coat rack. Luffy opens the door, stepping out and slamming it shut.

Locking the door behind him.

___

“God, what the hell is his problem?!” Luffy yells outloud while shoving an entire unpeeled mandarin orange in his mouth, chewing and pocketing it in his cheek. “All was doing was asking where he was!! He only comes home late if he had a big surgery or something, so I thought maybe someone had DIED or something—“ he digs in the drawers of the refrigerator, pulling out a container of spaghetti and setting it on top of the pile of food in his arms. “BUT HE’S JUST AN ASSHOLE!!” He slams the fridge door shut with his foot. Digging though a kitchen drawer he pulls out a fork and sets himself down at a kitchen stool, placing his pile of food on the table. “Well if he wants me dead, he’s gonna have to kill me himself—“ A broom suddenly comes down on Luffy’s head, smacking him over and over with high pitched screaming following. Luffy holds his arms over his head in defense,

“Stop! Cut it out!! It’s me, Usopp!!”

“Luffy?!” Usopp pauses for a moment, then slams the broom over his head again, “QUIT-BREAKING-INTO-MY-FUCKING-HOUSE!!! ITS PAST MIDNIGHT!!!” He stops swinging, already out of breath. Luffy takes a fried chicken leg out of his pile of food, taking a bite and watching Usopp catch his breath.

“Geez, calm down.”

“YOU— SHUT UP!! Jesus… what are you even doing here?” He leans on his broom, a smile on his face, “You get into a fight with your boyfriend or something?” Luffy grunts angrily, taking a big bite of Usopp’s food. “Thought so, he seems like a jerk. But seriously, I didn’t even recognize you in the dark. Especially without your hat.”

“Ah!” Luffy frantically patted the top of his head and his back. In the rush of storming out he’d forgotten his hat on the couch.

“Thats odd of you, you’re always taking your hat with you… how bad was the fight? Did you punch him and run?”

“No, I didn’t hit him.” He cleans off the chicken bone and chucks it at the trashcan, missing horribly. “Just yelled at each other. But he started it…” he turns around in his chair, facing Usopp. “I don’t get it, he’s a good guy. And we did all that stuff. So why isn’t he talking to me?! I don’t feel like he’s lying to me about stuff, but why can’t he just be honest? He shouldn’t be mad about the surgeries and money, I’m gonna pay him back.” Usopp sits on the back edge of his couch, resting his chin on the broom handle.

“… maybe he feels guilty, like he feels like your feelings for him are only cause he saved your life.” Luffy looks at the ground, kicking his feet.

“… That’s stupid. I liked him before I knew all that.”

“Well maybe he doesn’t know that.”

“Then I’ll just tell him! Thanks Usopp—“ Luffy hops off his stool ready to run for the door.

“Woah woah woah! Hang on!!” Usopp stops him in his tracks, grabbing the hood of his coat. “You can’t just go back now!”

Luffy coughs, tugging on his coat to give some slack to breathe, “Why not??”

“You need to wait! Luffy, he wronged you! I don’t know what he said, but if you’re the one stuck apologizing in a relationship you’re just gonna get walked all over! Trust me, I’m sure he needs time to cool off his head.”

“Hmmm…” Luffy sits back on the stool, reaching back for an apple and taking a bite. “I only left cause you told me I shouldn’t punch the people I like. I was going to look for a snowball to throw at his head but I couldn’t find any.” Usopp sighed.

“Oh how mature you’ve gotten…” Usopp takes a seat on the stool next to Luffy, “I don’t get it Luffy, why this guy? From what I’ve heard, all he does it snap at you for things and avoid you. If not for saving your life, then why? Don’t tell me you’re really that lonely from all of us moving apart from one another. Because that’s what it seems like— and chew your food before you answer.” Luffy takes a second to chew the apple before swallowing.

“He acts like he doesn’t care, but he does a lot more for me than he lets on. I used to eat pizza and fast food all the time, he said he was getting tired of all the pizza boxes so he started cooking for me. Before he leaves for work, he wraps up these breakfast sandwiches he makes and leaves them in the fridge for me.”

“… For you? Or for him the next morning?”

“Well it’d be weird if they’re for him when he writes my name on them.” Usopp raises his eyebrows, this is the first he’s heard of Law doing this. “He asks me what I’ve been up to. At first I thought it was just cause he was making sure I was trying to get a job, but when I talk about where I was he actually listens to me— like that one time I got into that fight with that alley raccoon bullying Chopper, he got really angry and told me I need to get checked for rabies.”

“Which you did, right?—“

“And when I fall asleep on the couch he puts a blanket on me and a pillow under my head. I caught him once patting my head too. And, I mean… he looks cool and acts so serious all the time. But when I touch or hug him he gets nervous, and I just feel like I can’t help but touch him more when he’s like that. It’s fun being around him, even when he’s trying so hard to be an asshole. It’s not like finding out he paid for all those surgeries doesn’t make me like him more… more like it proves that he really is a good guy, ya know? I knew he was a good person, I just don’t get why he gets so cold.” Usopp listens to Luffy, Luffy’s eyes staring wistfully into the pile of food. But it’s not his usual look he gets while looking at someone else’s food. Usopp sighs.

“Well, I guess you’re just going to have to ask him right? Only thing to do now is—“

“Hahah, yeah, I know. Go to bed.”

“No. Clean up the mess you made.”

“… but I was going to eat this.”

“This is why we don’t live together.”


	9. Chapter 9

It had been 3 days since their fight, Luffy never returned to the apartment. Law could tell by the uneaten food left in the fridge. He’s been out longer before, Law guessed he must be staying at a friend’s house in the meantime. He didn’t worry.. he didn’t, but he’s been keeping himself occupied by picking up extra shifts or staying by late to help out other doctors, even going into post-op to help out nurses with a few of his patients. Exhausted was an understatement, his coworkers noticed as well. Tonight the next shift came an hour early for report, as soon as he was done he was shooed out of the building. As he walks home he stumbles once or twice over his own feet. He needs to eat, he needs to sleep. He’s jumped at his own reflection in the passing by shop windows twice, and the most he can stomach is a plain bagel in the morning. He can’t keep running on fumes like this.

Reaching the apartment door he turns the knob. Its unlocked… did Luffy come back?

No. Must have accidentally left it unlocked.

He opens the door, the apartment just as cold and dark as it is outside. Luffy was normally the one to turn up the heat to around 80F, it was like living in a retirement home and it jacked up their utility bill so he’d always have to dial it back down to the 60’s. Though at night he’d just turn off the heating unit and let the cold come in naturally. Well with the sleep deprivation, he’d forget to even turn it back on in the morning. Law closes the door behind him, not bothering to take off his shoes or coat, or even turn on a light. He slides his bag off his shoulder and onto the ground, plopping down in the middle of the couch. He sits in the dark staring at the TV, looking for the TV remote his hand bumps into the straw hat on the seat next to him. He picks it up, feeling the rough woven strands of straw tracing his fingers over spots that have been roughly patched together and over the cheap red cloth band. He sighs, but the weight in his chest doesn’t lighten. His whole being feels jaded, tired, numb. Everything would be easier if the roof just caved in over his head, he wouldn’t have to deal with anything anymore. He rests his head on the couch, closing his eyes. If only…

___

His eyes shoot open, his heart pounding hard in his chest. Nothing quite like waking up in a total panic for no fucking reason. Was I holding my breath..? What time is it? He looks at the digital clock sitting atop the TV.

09:04PM

God it hasn’t even been an hour since he got home, that was maybe 30 minutes of sleep. It’s like being on the sleep schedule of a fucking ant. Maybe if I get to my bed quick enough I can go back to sleep— he feels something heavy is leaned against his right arm.

Luffy sits slouched against Law, eyes closed and arms crossed, his head resting on Law’s shoulder. Law looked at Luffy through the reflection of the TV, his eyes well-adjusted to the dark. Luffy has his brows furrowed like he was concentrating hard, but he’s definitely asleep. He takes a deep breath, in exhaling he relaxes deeper on Law’s shoulder. Luffy could have easily just flipped on the lights and wake up Law. Give him a piece of his mind and Law would deserve every bit of insult that’d come his way. He could have ignored Law and headed back to his room, and pretend he didn’t even see him…

Law gently places the straw hat on Luffy’s head, tilting it to the side slightly so it wouldn’t poke his face as he rests his head against Luffy’s and closes his eyes.

___

“That’ll be… $76.80”

Jesus, thats an ungodly amount… for what?

“Thanks!” The door shuts. Law opens his eyes, squinting at the sunlight shining in through the half-open blinds of the window. Luffy carrying a stack of Chinese take-out walks to the kitchen, the cluttering of dropped boxes is heard on the kitchen table. The living room is full of light and warm once again, the heating unit running at full blast. Law unzips his coat and gets up from the couch, setting it on the coat rack. He makes his way to the bathroom, setting the heat to 70F on his way. He quickly washes himself in the shower, brushing his teeth while letting the hot water run down him. Surprisingly, he doesn’t have a headache from the lack of water he’s had for the past week, or by how much he just slept. Judging by the Chinese food Luffy picked up, the place only delivering after 11am, so that’s around… 15 hrs of sleep? It doesn’t feel like a real number of sleep achievable to Law, but by God it happened. He turns off the shower and gets out, drying himself off. Probably should have shaved, feeling how scruffy his face has gotten but. Ah. Well. He walks to his room wrapped in a towel and puts on a plain white T-shirt, grey sweatpants and black boxers, and slides on some regular white socks.

Law stands awkwardly at the kitchen entrance watching Luffy shove lo-mein in his mouth. Luffy notices Law and stands up from the table.

“Ah, Traffy you’re awake! I thought you were dead ahaha I tried waking you up to ask what you wanted to eat but you wouldn’t wake up. So I got a bit of everything!” He gestures to the table covered in different dishes. Law was still in a daze to care too much about the space left for the fridge, also… his stomach was rumbling for the first time all week.

“Yeah… thanks…” he muttered, pulling out a chair and sitting down helping himself to the fried rice. The two of them sat together, eating in silence. It was hard to take the awkwardness from the moment Law entered the kitchen, but now that he’s finished two containers of fried rice and chugged a bottle of water SOMETHING has to be said.

“MM!” Luffy suddenly exclaimed like he forgot something important, with a mouthful of noodles. He stands up and gestures angrily at Law, “MH LMHKHM YMH BHMFHMRHME—“

“OKAY, LUFFY?? I DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU’RE SAYING.” He swallows his food.

“I liked you before I knew you paid for my surgeries! I know you didn’t mean what you said, and it didn’t bug me that much but—! I just don’t get why you act like this when you like me so much, quit pushing me away!” Law sighs and slouches in his chair, eyes adverting Luffy’s. He picks at his noodles with his chopsticks.

“I was tired and frustrated, mostly at myself, and I took it out on you. I shouldn’t have said it. I’m just…” Law lowers his voice, like he’s speaking under his breath, “Not really… used to stuff like this.”

“Like what?” Law picks at a crab rangoon before putting it in his mouth.

“You know–“

“Hand jobs?” The hard fold of the crab rangoon playfully scrapes at Law’s esophagus and part of the cream cheese goes down the wrong pipe. He gets into a coughing fit, Luffy’s sincerity of the question and the crab rangoon had thrown him off-guard.

“BEING LIKED.” He manages to choke out. And hand jobs, yeah. He takes a sip of water and clears his throat, trying to compose himself despite the tears in his eyes. “I don’t get what you see in me. Why waste your time with me? We’re just roommates, you don’t need to feel obligated to be my friend or anything. And for what happened back then, don’t feel obligated by that either. I did it on a whim. I can clean up my own messes, I have been for a long time.”

“Seriously? You’re pretty dumb aren’t you?” Was really hoping this wouldn’t turn into a fight— “I like you. Thats all. Don’t know why you keep trying to get me to not like you, I already made up my mind.” He rolls his eyes in a ‘geez, get a load of this guy’ manner, “You’re not the only one that saved my life when my brother died, I just like you alright? Stop thinking so hard about it, you’re gonna give yourself a headache.” Law watched him shove the last of lo-mein in a bite that should have been 3 bites. Everything about Luffy’s nonchalant manner has been a pain in the ass ever since he moved in, how he’s just able to be honest about himself is beyond him. But its also been relieving… like he doesn’t have to put up walls around him. He doesn’t get the same feeling of being judged an analyzed with everything he says like other people do.

“… Do whatever you want.” Law gets up from the table, putting empty containers in recycling, trash, and leftovers in the fridge, he walks to the door putting his boots and coat on. He opens the door, Luffy grabs Law’s hand.

“What are you—“ Luffy looks at him, eyes brimming and a confident smile on his face.

“We haven’t held hands before. Guess we skipped a few steps before that huh?” Again, with the nonchalant attitude, unaware that he’s stirring up Law making his chest tighten and feel like he’s holding his breath, waiting to see how much more affection Luffy will show him.

Law leans down, giving Luffy a quick kiss.

“Stay here. I’ll be back soon.” Law zips up his coat and covers his head with his hood, opening and shutting the door behind him. He walks quickly, the cold wind not relieving the rising heat on his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can't run away from the gay feelings, Law. Trust me. I've tried.


	10. Chapter 10

The kiss he gave played back in his head through his entire walk and convenience store trip. God, what am I? A high scholar?? Why was it that kiss that made him so embarrassed? They’ve already gone much further, and well… Law plans on going further. Besides beer and condoms from the store, he also got an enema kit. He’s a doctor, he knows how they work. They’re prescribed before just about any bowel surgery, he’s even had to give one when a shitty new nurse was too nervous to do so. Shachi and Penguin had talked about when they were in nursing school having to give and get IVs for practice, but more importantly it was done to build empathy with patients. Well this is a whole other level of building empathy.

The big question was… how to bring this up in conversation. He anticipates that it won’t be used for awhile, not until they can establish a better relationship with one another. A few dates first, some more time just living with one another, some greatly needed talks about their… relationship. I guess first we should figure out what we actually ARE. More than friends, but not a couple..?

Just as he gets to the stairs leading to their apartment, Luffy meets him there with a plastic grocery bag in his hand.

“Ah, you went to the store too Traffy?”

“Yeah I was… just picking up some stuff” He holds the bag a little behind him, hiding what contents are already hidden by the bag with his leg.

“Oh really? Me too! Here, I got you something!” Luffy pulls a box out of his bag and places it firmly in Law’s hand.

It’s an enema kit.

Luffy runs up the stairs, leaving Law as if he didn’t just hand him an enema kit out in the open.

“OKAY. Well, I got something for you too—“ Law chases him up the stairs into their apartment, digging through his own grocery bag. He pulls out the enema kit and places it flat in Luffy’s hand. There! See how weird it is to just HAND SOMEONE AN ENEMA KIT? He inspects the box, he could see in Luffy’s eyes him trying to process the gift.

“… I’m not going to use this!”

“W—“ Law pauses to rub the bridge of his nose, “Why not?”

“Cause I don’t wanna.” Oh because I’M the one just THRILLED to use an enema, so you don’t have to?

“So if I don’t want to give myself one, I just won’t then?” Luffy stared thinking, then answers with a simple shrug. Okay this is going to go nowhere, “Fine. We’ll both do it.”

Luffy puffs out his cheeks in a pout, “No—“

“Dude just fucking do it.” Law bats Luffy on the head with the box and goes into the bathroom. What a pain in the ass he can be…

___

Well… hm… a new kind of empathy has definitely developed for him. He steps out of the bathroom, waist wrapped in a slightly damp towel (due to the morning shower, it hadn’t dried completely yet) and clean… inside and out.

“Luffy, I’m done. It’s your turn.” Luffy leans over from his seat on the couch, pausing his video game.

“Huh? For what?”

“A shower. And, you know…”

“Why? I already took a shower today……. ah! Don’t tell me, did you already use it?”

“Well yeah I already…” Law’s voice trails off. Wait……………………………………………. why did he already use it?

“Ahhh that was fast! I didn’t expect you to want to have sex so suddenly!”

OH MY GOD, NEITHER DID I. Thats what it looks like!! When someone just suddenly pops in an enema as soon as they get home!!

Law’s face turns beet red, what the hell came over him? Why did he use it all of a sudden? He had a plan to take things slow and progress a relationship like a normal person, and as soon as Luffy confronted him at the bottom of the stairs that just all went out the window.

Luffy lets out a laugh, “Whats with you? You’re really something else Traffy! Okay okay let me save and we can get to it!”

God… if you can hear me— and I know you can— just let the roof cave in over my head right here. Right now.

Luffy turns off the TV and meets Law in the hallway, taking Law’s hand and leading him to his own room. Law is barely able to register the change of environment, his free hand covers his bright red face in shame,

“Luffy… please… I need a minute.”

“Yeah, sure.” Luffy sits Law on the edge of his bed, undoing his towel.

“Oh my God! Stripping me isn’t giving me a minute!!”

“What is there to think about? You already prepped yourself, might as well do something about it.” Luffy gets onto his knees between Law’s legs, “Besides, I’m excited that we already get to do this. I hated the thought of waiting, so I’m pretty happy!”

“… I really didn’t intend to be doing it this sOON—?!” Law reflexively grabs Luffy’s hair, Luffy has his mouth around Law’s dick sucking at it.

He feels Luffy’s warm wet tongue brush against the head, making circular strokes and pressing the tip of his tongue on the tip. Just watching him makes Law feel like his heart is going to beat out of his chest.

“L-Luffy— ahh!” With his lips wrapped around Law’s dick, he moves his mouth down taking it further into his mouth. The feeling is… unbelievably good, his mouth feels so hot and soft, even when he quickens his movements it still feels pleasantly gentle.

“You’ve done this before, haven’t you?”

“Mmm…” the hum of his response while Law’s dick is in his mouth sends a buzzing feeling in his stomach. Luffy takes it out of his mouth, a thin thread of saliva from his lips. Law swallows, how easy it’d be to just let go and start jacking off on him until he came on his face. “Yeah I have. Have you?”

Law adverts his eyes, “No… not this.” Not anything. It’s never been a priority to get together with someone, not even just for a one-night-fling to see what its all about. It took forever for him to actually develop a sex drive, what will all the trauma growing up. He can’t ask Luffy to ‘be gentle~’ that’d be cheesy as hell. And a dead give-away.

“Ah, really? That explains why you’re so sensitive.” Is it that obvious? Luffy gets up off his knees and opens up Law’s night-stand drawer. Sure just rummage through my things. Though Law knows exactly what he’s looking for, so he shortens the leash on his pet peeve of people touching his belongings. Luffy pulls out the bottle of lube they had used before. He walks back to Law, pouring some lube onto his fingers.

“Yosh! Bend over!” he says, in the least-romantic way possible. “Or lean back, your pick. Just relax already!”

Law covers his face with his hands. THIS IS THE MAN I’M GIVING MY VIRGINITY TO— AM I REALLY SURE ABOUT THIS? Law takes a deep breath, scooting further onto the bed leaning back.

“I hate you.” he mutters through his hands. Luffy chuckles, kneeling on the bed over Law. He pulls aside one of Law’s hands,

“C’mon, don’t be like that. I’ll make you feel better~!” He slides one lubed finger up Law’s asshole. He gasps in surprise, grabbing the collar of Luffy’s shirt. “Relax! It’s just one finger!” Law couldn’t form words, it was more of a garble of curses. “I can’t just shove my dick up there yet, that hurts like hell.” A warning. A warning would have been nice. Luffy gently brushes Law’s black bangs aside, kissing him on the forehead.

It’s frustrating. Already its frustrating, to be the only one who feels like they’re being thrown around. It’s always been a loss of control with Luffy, but the guy is making a whole mess of him. Law pulls Luffy closer,

“Not there.” He presses his lips onto his mouth, his tongue pressing into his mouth feeling Luffy’s tongue. Luffy pulls back a little,

“Traf—“

No. Shut up.

Law pulls him back, interrupting whatever he was going to say. While kissing at him, Luffy begins to move his finger, feeling around in circular motions. It’s not as bad as Law thought. Weird yeah, but it’s just painless pressure at this point. He can tell Luffy is getting distracted from the kissing. Luffy crooks his finger, hitting a weird part of him, the pressure more intense than when he was just feeling around. Luffy notices, he inserts another lubed finger. Feeling around and opening his fingers inside him, paying special attention to where Law reacted.

“Ahh ah Luffy..” Don’t stop, it feels fucking amazing. Luffy looks down at Law, eyes relaxed and his mouth partially open softly panting, watching Law under him dreamily as he continues loosening him up. With his other hand, Luffy feels around Law’s chest over the heart tattoos decorating them, admiring them, admiring how Law looks under him. It’s a considerable amount of time before Luffy pulls his fingers out.

“That should be enough.” He sits up, taking off his shirt and tossing it off the bed. He adjusts his hat on his head.

“The hat can come off too.”

“Huh? Why?”

“I don’t want to feel like I’m about to get fucked by Little Boy Blue, just take it off.”

“Boo~” He takes off the hat and sets it on the night stand. Great. Now it gets to watch.

Luffy takes off his pants. His dick stands erect, just from kissing and loosening up he’s this excited? He opens up a condom, sheathing his dick and applying lube over it. Kneeling between Law’s open legs, he holds his dick against Law’s asshole. Pressing the head and rubbing it,

“Don’t tighten up on me, relax—“ He pushes into Law, the tip making it through before Law tenses up. “Hey!“

“It’s not as easy as you’d think!” And not with someone as impatient as Luffy. He sighs.

“Take a deep breathe, don’t think about it so much.” It didn’t occur to him he was holding his breath, and that his jaw was clenched. He took a deep breath through his nose, and out through his mouth, trying his best to relax his face. As he was doing so, he could feel Luffy push in further.

“Hang on, not so fast—“

“Man, quit talking and just breathe!” GOD I WANT TO PUNCH HIM. He takes a deeper breath, it wasn’t as therapeutic as the other breaths but he had to do something to keep him from going apeshit with a dick in his ass. “There! Whats with you? You need to chill—“

“Luffy, if you don’t hurry up and make me cum I MIGHT just kill you.”

“Ah… got it.” Luffy moves his hips, gently moving in and out of him, brushing against his prostate with every stroke. It wasn’t as intense as it was with his fingers, but the fit of Luffy inside him was satisfying in a different way. Luffy adjusts himself little, rubbing right against Law’s prostate now— definitely more intense than the fingers now. Law lets out a moan,

“Hahh hahh right there”

“Mm.” Luffy thrusts harder into him, there’s a little pain but its heavily overshadowed with pleasure. Law feels himself, sitting at the edge of an orgasm ready to dive over the edge. Just another push is needed, badly, its torture to stay like this yet it feels so good.

“Ahh Law—” Luffy is close too. He gets caught up in his own rhythm of thrusts, letting himself get lost in his own pleasure, closing his eyes and pounding more roughly into him. It takes Law over, an electric feeling surges through his stomach and his mind goes hazy. He rests his head back as he ejaculates, semen leaking over his thigh. Luffy continues thrusting in him before cumming as well, his body shaking and pressing deeper into Law.

They’re both left panting and covered in sweat. Luffy finally pulls out of Law, the feeling of his dick sliding out of him sending a final wave of relief for him.

“Fuu~ that felt good!” Luffy reaches over the bed and puts his hat back on, smiling down at Law, “Ready for more?”

“Holy shit can I get a minute? An actual minute.” Jesus Christ he JUST came and the guy is already ready for more, he wasn’t that much younger than him but one round already makes him feel out of shape. Luffy rests on Law’s body, crossing his arms over Law’s chest resting his chin on his arm, watching Law try to catch his breath.

“So? Feeling any better?”

Thats a loaded question. At the moment or in general? He let out a long sigh, patting Luffy on the head.

“More or less.” But one thing is for sure, living with this guy for another year or so won’t be so bad anymore.

—END—

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone who stuck through to read this! Its my first fanfic I've ever posted, and really stuck through with. I loved writing this, and debated on ending it with this chapter. Figured I should stop now while I'm ahead, ahah. Anyways, feel free to comment if you'd like more of this, any suggestions for a new fanfic, or if you have any questions about "More or Less Stressed". Thank you for the support!!


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